


Never Again

by LT_Aldo_Raine



Category: Godless (TV 2017)
Genre: Bill loves his sister, Country & Western, Gen, Guilt, Talking, Talking About the Past, Western, men having feelings, post-shoot out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 12:06:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13271118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LT_Aldo_Raine/pseuds/LT_Aldo_Raine
Summary: It was pure luck that Bill McNue had stumbled upon Roy Goode on his way back to La Belle.  “I appreciate you comin' back, Mr. Goode... I appreciate what you did for this town.”Neither man mentioned that La Belle would have never been in danger had it not been for Roy in the first place. They had some grace, after all.OR: Bill and Roy chat after the shoot out in La Belle. Bill is grateful, Roy is introspective about his past with Frank, and both men feel guilty about the near-fate of the small mining town.





	Never Again

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick little something that popped into my head. 
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy.

“ _Why’d you do it?”_  
  
It was pure luck that Bill McNue had stumbled upon Roy Goode on his way back to La Belle—a work of God that he’d managed to catch the outlaw in time to enlist him in the fight against Frank Griffin to protect the town.  
  
_“_ _Do what?”_ __  
  
_“_ _Why’d you do it?” Bill repeated. “What happened to make you leave Frank?”_  
  
They’d been riding hard since the previous night and had only just stopped to give the horses a much needed rest, eyes looking frantically east towards La Belle. The mares couldn't rest long—they had a whole goddamn town to save, for Christ's sake.  
  
_“_ _Lots of reasons, I suppose.”_ __  
  
Bill knew what many in La Belle had come to discover—that Roy Goode lacked a distinct meanness that made men like Frank Griffin so good at being cruel. But Bill also knew that Roy had rode with Frank and his men for the better part of a decade, and that leaving family—whether they were family by blood or by choice—wasn’t something that was done lightly.

After it was over—after the shoot out with Griffin's mob and the women, after tending to the wounded, after extinguishing the fires that tore through the main street of their home, after Goode had shot and killed Griffin—after it all, Roy and Bill found themselves out front of the sheriff's office. Bill was leaning on his arms, hands wrapped around the porch railing. His eyes danced across the bruised and battered landscape of his home. The lingering smoke swirled over the charred planks of half the buildings in town—the wood chock full of bullet holes, the window panes broken, the glass shattered. The bodies of Frank Griffin's men were thrown together in a heap out front of the saloon. Whitey's body was laid peacefully on the bed of Charlotte Temple's wagon, a sheet draped over him, his favorite hat placed over his face. Streaks and pools of blood coated the dirt street that ran straight through town to the old mine.

“Shit,” Bill muttered, his heart clenching painfully. Those motherfuckers had nearly destroyed his home. Across the way, he watched Mary Agnes disappear into Callie Dunne's home, and he said a quick, little prayer thanking God for his baby sister. Fuck, if she hadn't saved the town with the stand she'd organized...

The sheriff felt his eyes begin to mist at the mere thought of what would have happened to his sister, to his children, to his neighbors—the very people he was duty-bound to protect—if Mary Agnes weren't so damn smart and brave.

Bill cleared his throat, attempted to dismiss the morose thoughts, and let his gaze dart over to the outlaw-turned-vigilante. “I appreciate you comin' back, Mr. Goode... You could've kept gone goin', but you stayed. I know what happened with Frank wasn't easy for you, but I appreciate what you did for this town all the same.”

Roy took the gratitude silently. Reclined on his elbows against the porch railing, he, too, was watching the town, eyes searching for something. For what exactly, Bill would never know. The sheriff wasn't sure he'd want to know if he could.

When Roy finally spoke, his voice was quiet against the wind. “It took me a long time to realize that Frank didn't own me.”

The outlaw spoke like he was talking to himself, or to no one, his eyes roaming, his words slow and soft. “I seen the way the others were afraid of Frank, the way they lived for him and his bidding, regurgitating his words like they was their own—and I hated it. I wasn't gonna be that way.” Roy snorted, shot a wry glance Bill's way. “Least, that's what I told myself... One day, I got some news about my brother, and I knew...I just knew I couldn't do it anymore, that I couldn't keep bein' like them. That I _wasn't_ like them, or I didn't wanna be if I was. So, I cut out and ran.”

“How'd that go?” asked Bill, the dark humor heavy in his tone.

Roy chuckled good-naturedly. “Oh, you know, just fine and dandy. 'Cept I realized real quick like that I didn't rightly know what to do out in the world on my own. S'why I started messin' with Frank, and then-” The outlaw frowned. “Then Frank done what he did in Creede and...well, here we are.”

He looked to Bill like he was expecting something. Whatever he wanted, Bill wasn't sure what it was, or how he could give it to him, so Bill simply nodded and shifted his eyes back to the street. “Well, we can thank the good Lord that La Belle survived. Thanks, in part, to you, Mr. Goode.”

Neither man mentioned that La Belle would have never been in danger had it not been for him in the first place. They had some grace, after all.

“Never again,” Roy muttered.

Bill blinked. It took him a moment to reckon out what the gunman had meant: Frank Griffin was dead. Not only was La Belle safe, but so was every other town in America. _Never again_.

Bill rubbed his mustache, worked his jaw. “Never again.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on some more Alice/Roy stuff and a Maggie/Callie origin story. Hit me up with any requests!


End file.
